Sunday, November 20, 2011

two weeks until the Met's radio broadcast season, two weeks until finals season...

I can't believe how productive I've been since Thursday afternoon. It's to the point that I'm actually ahead on most things, and I've been able to start a blog post on Saturday night, rather than dashing one off on Sunday night.

Monday: We finally had a class where we went through the business plan section-by-section with Trudy--which should've been done in the first class.

Output was more of a work period than anything else. Which was good, because I needed to do some serious work on the website assignment, which I'd let slide. I finished the website, but since it's not due until December fifth, I won't hand it in just yet. Maybe I'll add a few more portfolios, or tweak the colours in the layout...

Tuesday: On Sunday, I printed two photos for a show at Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Centre, Inc., and I spent part of Tuesday afternoon cutting them (I'd printed them on the roll paper) and then taking them to the Canada Post down the street. I also checked out a favourite book for my photography project. Although I've read it a couple gazillion times, I wanted to look at it again, and note what sorts of techniques Jill Krementz used.

I'd planned to do a shoot at Dance Fredericton, but the classes that I was photographing were cancelled that week. Because I didn't want the week to be a waste, I decided to experiment with different ways of processing. I did four photos: one slightly desaturated, one converted to B&W and lightened, one with a magenta colour cast, and one with an out-of-focus background (doing the mask for that took forever--that idea is officially off the list).

As of that day, I'll be home in a month--yaaaayyyy!

Wednesday: Like Output, Photoshop was a work period. I mostly worked on finishing the masking. We also talked/unleashed frustration about the business class. Drew said that the Photo Studio used to have a business class (I'm assuming that that was Gross 500--the students had to gross $500 in order to pass the course. Gross 500 was actually the nickname, and it was also a pun, as it was taught by Peter Gross)--and that maybe they should bring it back. Pretty-pretty-please, Photo Studio!

An entire course devoted to independent study projects: check. Photoshop independent study project: check. Lighting independent study projects: as of this week, check! The last three assignments for the Lighting course are week-long independent study assignments. This week, I decided to focus on using the gels, since I'd never used them before (gels are pieces of coloured polymer plastic that are used to change the colour of the light coming out of the flash).

Thursday: We talked some more about business, and presented the info we'd got from our undercover calls/emails. Peter noted that one very important thing that all but one of the photographers contacted left out of the total cost was processing time. Ouch. Note to non-photogs: when you hire a photographer, the photos aren't handed to you as they appear straight out of the camera (SOOC). Those images are edited and tweaked and processed, and that takes time and should be included in the total cost. Photoshop and/or Lightroom are a photographer's best friend beside his/her camera, lenses and tripod.

We also talked about next semester's electives. I really wanted to get into the book-binding one, but the woman who taught it, Linda Brine, isn't at NBCCD anymore. However, I think the watercolour course taught by Linda Kelly (my old first-semester FVA History Tutorial teacher) could be fun. I think there are one or two other courses that I thought could be cool, but I can't remember. There are four or five different options, and Peter will keep us posted on any updates for the electives. We aren't able to sign up yet.

Except for a meeting with Peter, I spent the rest of the afternoon doing homework. The meeting went well: I have some issues to work out, but I know what those issues are and how to resolve them. I'd hoped to put what I'd learned in the critiques into practice this week and take advantage of a full set of signed model releases, but got derailed due to the schedule change. Next week.

Friday: On days when I don't have class, I usually don't show up at the school until about two in the afternoon. This time I had to be there by 11:45 AM (10:45 EST) because I wanted to go over the ins and outs of using the gels with Drew, and one of my classmates had the studio booked at noon. I also told him about the fact that I want to continue working on the portfolio book throughout the year (it's due tomorrow)--and then I'll buy it after school's out as a souvenir of my time at NBCCD.

That day, I finally started writing the essay for the archiving assignment--and finished it in an hour. Two pages (double-spaced, twelve-point Times New Roman). Done. I am good at this writing thing. And I finally used up the $5,000 ($4,865.23 USD--we were to come up with a backup system that cost around that number. In the beginning, I found it rather hard.).

After finishing at school, I went to the Christmas craft market at the Boyce Farmers Market. I didn't buy any presents (bummer), but I did buy some treats, including mince pies (the kind without suet). Check out these recipes: Quick Mincemeat and Traditional Mincemeat, both from David Lebovitz. Even if you're a vegetarian, like me (or you hate the idea of kidney fat used in a dessert--how about five pounds of the stuff, 4 3/4 pounds of which didn't get used in the recipe?!), please read the story about the Traditional Mincemeat. It'll make you laugh. Promise. The Quick Mincemeat also has a story, but it's not as funny.

Saturday: Another day of getting stuff done. As I stated at the beginning of this post, I can't believe how much I've accomplished since Thursday. Most of what I had to do yesterday was finishing stuff up and getting it ready for Monday. Again, I spent the day getting stuff done, including shooting the independent lighting project, which was fun.

From my lighting project.

Sunday: I spent today doing more work on my business and marketing plans for Preparing for Professional Life, and printing them out as well as printing out the essay for Output (I also tossed it on the server, which is how we normally submit stuff for Drew's classes). As of right now (5:51 PM AST/4:51 EST), all I have to do is finish the painting for Drawing, which is a simple matter of adding white to a couple spots that shouldn't take too long (maybe ten or fifteen minutes) because I didn't have white paint with me yesterday.

PS: As of yesterday, there are exactly TWO WEEKS until the Met's first radio broadcast of the season! The opera in question will be Handel's Rodelinda, starring one of my favourite sopranos, who's also one of the best sopranos in the world: Renée Fleming. Four hours of Renée (well, three, due to two half-hour intermissions)? Yes, please!

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About Me

Annapurna Moffatt is a photographer living on St. David Ridge, in southwest New Brunswick. She holds a diploma in photography from the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in Fredericton, where she explored and experimented with urban photography and discovered a passion for dance photography, and a BFA in photography from NSCAD University in Halifax, where she focused specifically on artistic photography and pushing herself to the limit.